Until now, the condo market has been the last remaining bubble in TORONTO’s overheated real estate market, with prices hitting a record high in 2018 – and the average unit selling for more than $1,000 a square-foot. – URBANATION
Demand for new projects has slowed and long lineups have virtually disappeared. “I think those days of the modern gold rush, where every developer was selling out within 30 days are gone,” said real estate agent ADAM BRIND of Core Assets.
“You can’t just throw up a sign and say ‘we’re launching this’, and have a huge lineup.” Some see this as a healthy return to a normal market.<PHOTO ABOVE – condo listings on Bay Street in 2017>
Dramatic photo of the night (in the Los Angeles Times), as RAMI MALEK wins the lead actor award for his portrayal of Queen front-man FREDDIE MERCURY in ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’,
CANADA came away with two Oscars – one went to Domee Shi for ‘Best Animated Short’. The Pixar production – ‘BAO’ – is about a Chinese-Canadian woman and a ‘bao’, a little dumpling that springs miraculously to life. The eight-minute film is set in TORONTO and features many of the city’s landmarks.
“I’m an only child, so I’ve always been that overprotected little dumpling for my whole life,” Ms. Shi said in a recent interview with The Canadian Press. She shared the win with producer Becky Neiman-Cobb.
A second Oscar went to Canadian sound engineer PAUL MASSEY, alongside Tim Cavagin and John Casali in the best sound mixing category for their work on ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. It was the eighth Oscar nomination for Massey, who lived in TORONTO for 13 years before moving to Los Angeles.
It’s under consideration by U of T’s governance, and it could replace the former McLaughlin Planetarium, closed in 1995 <PHOTO ABOVE>, at 90 Queen’s Park. The architects are Diller Scofidio + Renfro, who were behind New York City’s High Line & the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. New York-based, the firm is now working with TORONTO’s architectsAlliance, and heritage consultants ERA Architects.
The University’s president MERIC GERTLER is impressed by the design. “This stunning architectural landmark will provide an invaluable opportunity to create a meeting space for scholars, and the wider city around us,” he told U of T Magazine.
The project will be home to a wide-ranging number of academic units – the School of Cities, Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, the Institute of Islamic Studies, the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies and the Archaeology Centre. It will also provide facilities for the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Music.
Among the building’s showpieces is a recital hall, with a large window looking out on the Toronto skyline. Above the hall – there’ll be a 400-seat event space with similar skyline views. A café will be opened on the ground floor and the designers will include a multi-storey atrium leading up to the recital hall. <Renderings by bloomimages, courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro>
For more details – 
From the NETFLIX MEDIA CENTER, February 20/2019 – “At CINESPACE Studios, Netflix will lease four sound stages, along with office and support space totaling approximately 164,000 square feet. At PINEWOOD TORONTO Studios, Netflix will also lease four sound stages and adjacent office space comprising a total footprint of approximately 84,580 square feet.”
“Both sites will support upcoming Netflix series and films, including the horror anthology series Guillermo del Toro Presents Ten After Midnight, the film Let It Snow and others, which will provide production jobs for up to 1,850 Canadians per year.”
“NETFLIX has produced many series and films in Canada starting in 2012 with the horror series Hemlock Grove (Toronto), and including Christmas Inheritance (Northern Ontario); The Holiday Calendar (Northern Ontario), In The Tall Grass (multiple locations in Ontario); Shadow of the Moon (Toronto), Polar (Toronto); I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (Ottawa) and The Christmas Chronicles (Toronto). “Current series filming in Canada include V-Wars (Northern Ontario) and October Faction (Toronto).”
Other Canadian cities that have benefited greatly from NETFLIX – Vancouver (extra greatly) & the province of British Columbia, Winnipeg, Calgary and Montreal. The company has worked with Canadian production partners to co-produce series for global audiences including Anne with an E (CBC), Travelers (Showcase), Frontier (Discovery Canada) and the limited series Alias Grace (CBC).”
Nigel “Sugar Pop” Walters, an 18-year-old student at Earl Haig Collegiate, shows off his scissor kick during a headstand. A few days after this photo was taken by the Toronto Star, “Breakdance ’84”, TORONTO’s first ever high school street dance show was held at Riverdale Collegiate. <PHOTO – Tony Bock, TORONTO Public Library collection>
<PHOTO – City of Toronto Archives/Sidewalk Labs, APRIL/1925>
Cutting through Premier DOUG FORD’S hyperbole, the provincial government’s plan for the TORONTO Transit Commission (TTC) might work. Its ace seems to be money, and the province’s ability to cut through red tape when it comes to the subway’s expansion in the Greater Toronto/Hamilton Area (GTHA).
The plan, presented at Queen’s Park, says Ontario would take over the building and maintenance of the present & future subway; TTC would deal with day-to-day operations; TTC would continue to run the streetcars and buses and keep fare box revenues; a push would be made to integrate the TTC with GO and regional transit systems; the province & city would agree on the dollar value of the present subway system and the maintenance price tag.
In a report published by the TTC in January/2019, the subway network and stations would need an estimated $22-billion in capital investment over the next 15 years. This wouldn’t include expansion projects, such as the downtown relief line.
This could be a ‘spider and the fly’ type story. “I think we’re being suckered,” said city councillor JOSH MATLOW, the only councillor who voted against talks with the province.
TORONTO PUBLIC LIBRARY is the world’s busiest public library system. Every year, more than 16-million people borrow about 30-million items from 99 branches. One of their services is ‘Dial-A-Sory’ for children under 12.
For a multi-lingual/cultural city like this one, stories are made available in fifteen languages – including English, French, Cantonese, Gujarati, Italian, Mandarin, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Somali, Tamil and Urdu. Storytime readers have included library volunteers, Blue Jays players, actors and National Ballet dancers.
ANDREW DO says learning English as child was made easier through the ‘Dial-a-Story’ program. <(Moe Doiron – photo> What better way for children (or adults) to learn another language or improve on the one he or she speaks. All you need is a phone. It’s free. ‘Dial-a-Story’ was created in 1989 by a consortium of libraries in Caledon, Vaughan, Brampton and North York. With amalgamation, the TORONTO Public Library took over the service in 1998.
Toronto Savvy 